Sarce's penalties

[Alan Turing]

I read somewhere that the players had a penalty competition before the season started.

Sarce won it, so he’s our best - he’s our penalty taker, I don’t see a problem.

 

[Cobi Budge]

The thing with penalties is that there’s no definition of what is a good penalty, if it hits the net it’s considered good, if it doesn’t it’s considered poor. Watch match of the day and on a weekly basis you’ll see 3 or 4 penalties stroked fairly centrally to one side of the goal, if they go in the pundits/commentators praise the ‘coolness’ & ‘composure’ of the taker, if the keeper saves it them the taker ‘lacked conviction’, despite both penalties being identical the way the keeper goes defines people’s view on how good the penalty was. So at Macclesfield, if the keeper didn’t save it, Sarce would be getting praise for a well struck penalty. No player converts every penalty they take, it’s just about a good ratio, and at the moment Sarce’s ratio is 7 taken, 5 scored directly, 6 scored if you count the rebound at Macclesfield, which isn’t bad and is probably the equivalent ratio or close to the equivalent of even the best penalty takers in the game. He also scored a penalty in the shootout against Rovers in the checkatrade. As I said, I don’t really see an issue here.

 

[rongreenblood]

It was stated somewhere that penalties hit straight down the middle are more likely to be successful than going either side of the goalkeeper,as goalkeepers nearly always dive to one side,so sarces' penalty was technically well hit.

 

[jimsing]

Majority have been well taken. The ones against Mansfield & Crewe were particularly good, as well as the first against Rovers. I don’t think there’s an issue myself.

The issue is obvious. He has missed 2 already. Cost us money in the Fa cup and almost a point on Tuesday.

The only person making this an issue is BG.

Most normal people realise that there is no such thing as a perfect penalty taker, unless you have the skill of a Messi or Ronaldo, and a regular penalty taker is going to have the odd miss, with the odd lucky save by the goalkeeper.

You have to be brave to take a penalty. There is a lot of stress involved. If the penalty results in a goal then it is a good penalty, however the ball goes into the net.

Sarc has done a terrific job so far. Long may he continue.

 

[Ave IT]

I would have thought cooper or mayor would take them

I'd put money on Cooper putting it over the bar - like virtually every other shot he takes.

 

[Gary S]

Haven't seen any statistics, but I suspect that a return of
5 (or 6) out of 7 compares very favorably. I do think though that he
should probably go to the right or higher to the left for his
next one, as keepers have all been going the right way recently.

On a separate note, I've long held that the keeper stands a
much better chance of saving a penalty if he waits. As someone
already mentioned, no keeper can stop a truly well-hit penalty, even
if he guesses right, but the pressure of the situation means that a
lot of penalties are not well-hit. Wait, and he can stop anything hit
too centrally.

 

[philevs]

Can someone explain this to me. Given that any penalty kick directed into a top left or right corner, if driven hard enough, cannot be saved, even if the keeper guesses the correct direction, why aren’t all penalties taken that way?

Yes a very good point.
For me it would be better if we had Mayor taking them

 

[Balham Green]

Majority have been well taken. The ones against Mansfield & Crewe were particularly good, as well as the first against Rovers. I don’t think there’s an issue myself.

The issue is obvious. He has missed 2 already. Cost us money in the Fa cup and almost a point on Tuesday.

The only person making this an issue is BG.

Most normal people realise that there is no such thing as a perfect penalty taker, unless you have the skill of a Messi or Ronaldo, and a regular penalty taker is going to have the odd miss, with the odd lucky save by the goalkeeper.

You have to be brave to take a penalty. There is a lot of stress involved. If the penalty results in a goal then it is a good penalty, however the ball goes into the net.

Sarc has done a terrific job so far. Long may he continue.

Some people find it difficult to grasp a basic point.
1. A 71% success rate is not good;
2. Just because the pen results in a goal doesnt means its a good pen. There is luck involved also. Very simplistic argument. Like saying if we won we must have played well. Though according to Ron above the pen at Macc was well hit even though he didnt score, Work that one out. Hit the ball hard and very few well be saved from 12 yards. Ask Wotton.

Bit worrying if Sarcevic won the pre season penalty shoot out. What does that say about our strikers?

 

[philevs]

I’d like to see a change for the next one we get, Sarce’s confidence could be waning and the thought of not scoring getting in his head.
I bet Jephcott or Hardie would love to bang one in

 

[mervyn]

I think we under-estimate the pressure on any professional footballer taking a penalty. Just look at the sheer relief on the faces of outstanding penalty takers like Kane and Aguero when they score.

Here’s something in a similar vein I can’t get my head round. Given that professional footballers are able to spend day in day out perfecting dead ball shooting, how come it’s rare to see a corner kick which beats the nearest defender and doesn’t go sailing over everyone. I’m desperately trying to remember when we had a genuinely consistent corner taker. Hodges perhaps?

 

[Lancastergreen]

You're all feeding the troll, BG just likes to bitch for the sake of it.
We have an assigned penalty taker, miss or score its part of football... Next one BG.

 

[Balham Green]

You're all feeding the troll, BG just likes to bitch for the sake of it.
We have an assigned penalty taker, miss or score its part of football... Next one BG.

You are a sad individual. I have raised a valid point for discussion. Er that IS the point of this site in case you hadn't noticed! Obviously that is something you have not reached the maturity to achieve yet. Perhaps when you finish Junior school?

 

[Lobster]

Here’s something in a similar vein I can’t get my head round. Given that professional footballers are able to spend day in day out perfecting dead ball shooting, how come it’s rare to see a corner kick which beats the nearest defender and doesn’t go sailing over everyone. I’m desperately trying to remember when we had a genuinely consistent corner taker. Hodges perhaps?

I was thinking about this last night watching the Spurs game. Many pitches have a slope pretty near the edge of the pitch, so the players have to run up the slope just before they kick the ball. I wonder if that makes some difference, especially if they practice taking corners on pitches that have flat areas all round (as in most training grounds I've seen) so have a flat run up.

 

[JannerinCardiff]

Personally I’ve been quite pleased with Sarcevic’s penalties, generally struck well and on target. He can quite easily go to the keepers left side to keep goalkeepers guessing so I’d be giving him my full support to take the next pen.

 

[jimsing]

Majority have been well taken. The ones against Mansfield & Crewe were particularly good, as well as the first against Rovers. I don’t think there’s an issue myself.

The issue is obvious. He has missed 2 already. Cost us money in the Fa cup and almost a point on Tuesday.

I think you will find that football is a team game, BG, that is eleven against eleven.

Sarc has NOT lost us money in the fa cup, the team failed to win and he did not nearly lose us a point on Tuesday. In fact he gained us a point.

You really do have a very skewed view of the game, don't you BG, or maybe you are taking a skewed viewpoint in order to promote discussion.

Either way, you are a very strange person, who likes to promote a view that you know others will take an opposite view of.